For the love of music
Depeche Mode, the long-running U.K. electronic rock/pop band and touchstone for many an aspiring and established outfit, is still alive and kicking. Delta Machine, studio album #13, is slated for release on March 26th. Lead single “Heaven” was offered up in late January and the official video has garnered over 3 and ½ million views on … [Read more...]
Nicole Barille and Sam Meister, otherwise known as mr. Gnome, are back with a fantastic(al) and fascinating video for “House of Circles” off their latest album Madness in Miniature. Directed by Sam himself, the video is stunning, scary, and surreal – just like the duo’s music. Nicole and Sam describe the video as “…a live action … [Read more...]
Rock-noir singer-songwriter Rykarda Parasol returns this April with her new album titled Against The Sun. “I Know Where My Journey Will End” will be featured on this album and it’s a subdued stunner with a dreamy video directed by M. Marzio to match. The video simultaneously projects a haunting, vespertine ambience befitting the song and … [Read more...]
Laura-Mary and Steven have never taken the video art form by storm, typically releasing decent stage performance-oriented videos. In a rare flight of imaginative fancy, however, and perhaps due to their collaboration with video director Craig Murray, their latest video spins a ‘fight night’ narrative that depicts an initially zoned-out … [Read more...]
British nouveau-retro electronic-pop trio Saint Etienne is back after a 7-year hiatus with its 8th studio album, the descriptively bland, but aptly titled Words and Music by Saint Etienne. Released in May on Heavenly Records, this concept album of melodic dance-pop and fleet disco beats contains lyrics that read like pages from an ultimate pop … [Read more...]
“Starlight” is a super-duper tuneful number with a delightfully eye-catching video to match. This twinkling pop song has a little bit of everything to keep the casual listener interested – a brisk, toe-tapping beat, Jasmine Ash’s sweet ‘n’ light vocals, bright, sprightly, sing-along refrains, a whistling interlude (now-required in any … [Read more...]
Lana Del Rey’s love affair with America, money, and true love (possibly not in that particular order) continues with her song “National Anthem”. The video, directed by Anthony Mandler, opens with a reenactment of Marilyn Monroe’s breathily sung, celebratory “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” tribute to John F. Kennedy, with Lana onstage … [Read more...]
KaRIN and Statik have had a long and active career as the DIY electro-industrial dream machine Collide, releasing their latest album Counting To Zero last autumn. They hit a high point with the single “Bending and Floating” and its accompanying dreamily dystopian video directed by Edward Mavskegg. The video seems like it comes from a lost … [Read more...]
As was mentioned in the two previous reviews of Lana Del Rey’s videos “Video Games” and “Blue Jeans”, Lana mania has been building up in the blogosphere for quite some time as the world awaits the imminent release of her album Born To Die. In the meantime, a constrained Lana warbled through a couple of disappointing performances on … [Read more...]
Guess what? Lana Del Rey has quite the backstory which is missing from her press releases… Née Elizabeth Grant, she released a 3-track EP titled Kill Kill in 2009 under the name Lizzy Grant, and also created an album called Nevada that was either put out and subsequently withdrawn (How does that happen?!) or never released to the public. The … [Read more...]